1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a combination power lawn mower and wheeled clippings receptacle. When cutting a lawn, the wheels of both the mower and the receptacle are powered by the mower. The receptacle is propelled along a linear path, and the mower simultaneously orbits about the receptacle. The mower discharges clippings into the receptacle, thus gathering a large quantity of clippings, and thereby avoiding the necessity of frequent interruption of the cutting chore in order to dispose of the clippings.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The chore of cutting the grass of a yard or field is an onerous one, and has inspired many automated devices for reducing human effort required to accomplish this chore to be proposed in the prior art.
Several factors are present which increase the effort required of a human operator, and which greatly complicate automatic operation. One is the steering and control of the grass cutting operation. The prior art has suggested numerous contrivances to deal with this factor.
One approach is to automate the cutting of a yard by designing a mower or like cutting appliance to sense or remember, and then respond to, obstacles. Examples of this approach are seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,924,389, issued to Stanley B. Kita on Dec. 9, 1975, 5,007,234, issued to Darlene M. Shurman et al. on Apr. 16, 1991, 5,163,273, issued to David J. Wojtkowski et al. on Nov. 17, 1992, 5,204,814, issued to Thomas H. Noonan et al. on Apr. 20, 1993, and 5,323,593, issued to Lohn G. Cline on Jun. 28, 1994. The last cited example responds to an obstacle by altering its trajectory according to a predetermined scheme. The resultant final negotiated path is random.
The remaining examples all have systems for sensing position, and maintaining to the best degree possible an initial, predetermined scheme.
At best, this group can reasonably be expected to cut a yard while operating unattended. However, effectiveness and completeness of the job will vary with the sophistication and complexity of the machine. Those machines which are best suited to complete the task are likely to be encumbered by complicated and possibly redundant sensing and calculating control systems.
It will be appreciated that regardless of the success of the above devices, and similar devices which may have been proposed but not detailed herein, that they address only part of the total work that is to be performed. In most cases, the cuttings must be collected for disposal, since normally it is not acceptable practice to leave the cuttings on the grass.
Cuttings must be collected either simultaneously with cutting, or in a subsequent operation. However, none of the above cited devices address this aspect of the task.
Current practice, with respect to apparatus being marketed, is to attach a clippings collector such as a removable bag supported on a frame, to the mower, which may be a manually or power propelled mower. In all cases known to the present inventor, the collector is carried aboard the mower, and is fixed thereto.
Known automatically guided grass cutting devices have not been associated with clipping recovery apparatus.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed.